Argument & Persuasion Vocabulary

the quality of being trusted and believed in

• fallacious reasoning

• relevance

• credibility

• rhetoric

The direct meaning of a word; the dictionary definition

• explicit

• inference

• connotative

• denotative

an appeal to ethics and credibility; the speaker gains trust from the audience

• pathos

• ethos

• logos

• fallacy

an appeal to logic and reason

• pathos

• logos

• ethos

• counterclaim

an appeal to emotion

• pathos

• logos

• ethos

• fallacy

the author's perspective on the topic

• claim

• purpose

• point-of-view

• central idea

the author's reason for writing the piece

• purpose

• thesis

• tone

• claim

the art of effective persuasion, especially the use of figures of speech and appeals

• rhetoric

• counterclaim

• credibility

• argument

the author's attitude toward a subject

• tone

• purpose

• claim

• credibility

The writer's main argument or thesis

• claim

• main idea

• evidence

• allusion